Now here’s a thought

Sarah has been away for ten days so I am taking up the blog writing baton.

I am moored up on Zakinthos town quay awaiting the arrival of Sarah and Keira. It’s a lovely place and as I sat watching the sun set this evening with a glass of wine in hand I contemplated my surroundings.

On my port side there is a beautiful looking yacht, it’s about 18m long and well equipped. On-board are a delightful couple, I am guessing they are late 60’s and obviously enjoying the rewards of their working life. They have just gone ashore to eat. They have unpronounceable Dutch names so let’s call them the Port Siders.

On my starboard side is a much smaller boat, about 9m in length, she looks very sea worthy and is probably quite exciting to sail, but she is a mature lady. On-board are a young family with two little girls, maybe 6 and 4. They are in Greece for the whole summer. At the moment dad and daughters are fishing off the back of the boat (a pointless exercise), all are obviously having fun. I can hear food being prepared, I hope they aren’t depending on the fish. Let’s call them the Starboard siders.

To buy and more importantly run an 18m yacht requires a lot of Euro’s. The winches on this boat will have cost more than we paid for Linea. I am making some assumptions but the Port Siders must have worked extremely hard and been successful at accumulating cash. In my experience this requires a few sacrifices along the way, perhaps risking the family house to invest in the business, being a grumpy, tired git, long working days, business trips eating into week-ends, and, as I see often, a lengthy conference call or two whilst on holiday with the family.

Again making a few assumptions but I am guessing the Starboard siders have made a life choice to live for now. Taking the summer off to sail your old boat around Greece having fun with your kids doesn’t tend to go hand in hand with climbing the corporate ladder or accumulating lots of cash.

What nobody tells you when your children are 6 and 4 is how brief their childhood will be, how quickly they will become young adults and not be too enthusiastic to spend the entire summer with their parents.

Charles says that as he always struggles to remember which is port and which is starboard he’s having difficulty making that life decision!
Hope you have your lovely girls back on board now – it was an absolute treat to see and catch up with Sarah (and Erin) last week, although I think she definitely drew the short straw in terms of the amount of work she had to do in such a short space of time, she deserves some special treats and attention … there should be no cooking, cleaning, washing or any chores for her to do this week!
Really wish we could come and join you on your adventures this summer, but can’t see how it can happen, maybe this autumn.
Take care and have fun, as always, and keep up with the blogging!

Get you. A few days to yourself and you come over all philosophical! I’d go for the Starboard life, fun now worry about the career later. Anyway, I’ll be too old and knackered to have fun when (if) I retire!

Hi ian it’s Jim and Alison Moondance we meet you in Zante town quay. Just for info we are in Astakos room for just 8/9 boats on the Quay which is free with water and electricity. Hope Sarah and your daughter arrived back safety and you enjoyed your solo sailing to the anchorage. Best wishes

Hi Jim and Alison, thanks for your message. Yes we had a lovely couple of weeks with Keira and Ian survived his solo anchoring and sailing experience. We have made it round the Peleponnese to Monemvasia (free with free water but no electricity)which is lovely. We are tied side to the east harbour wall as winds from the south howl round us. It is very nice here and the old village is stunning. I wish we had had time to better explore that area. Hoping we meet up again. Regards Sarah and Ian